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PROLOGUE

When I was a little girl of five or six, I distinctly remember the first time I saw a line-up of all the presidents in the encyclopedia. My eyes went instantly to Ulysses S. Grant. He didn’t look anything like the others. They all looked pompous, self-righteous, as if they knew from birth they’d be president someday. General Grant had a kind look on his face, with a mixture of sadness. Why was he so sad? Right away, I felt like I loved him.

I soon heard that Grant was the General who won the Civil War. He was the toughest general of them all. It had taken that ruthlessness and tenacity to beat Confederate General Robert E. Lee, and save the Union. I also heard that General Grant drank. And somewhere, softly tucked away in my childhood memory, I heard that General Grant was devoted to his wife. I heard that he drank because he missed her. Even as a child, this touched me profoundly. The toughest general in the world loved his wife so much that if he was away from her, he fell apart. Of course, I loved him all the more and thought it the ultimate in romance. General Grant was vulnerable. He had a big heart. Even on the battlefield, he needed his wife to hug him and kiss him good-night! Funny, these thoughts are among my earliest elementary school memories.

I heard that many of the other presidents had mistresses, or fought with their wives, or totally ignored them. But not the kindly, sad-faced General Grant. For him, his wife was the center of his universe. I stored this knowledge away in a secret, sentimental place in my heart.

Through the years, I grew from child to teenager, to woman. I was very ambitious, with many dreams, but always a romantic, and whenever I saw anything about General Grant on T.V. or in a newspaper, I took special interest. If the subject of presidents came up, I always told people Ulysses S. Grant was my favorite president. The reaction I always got was that this was kind of weird, because Grant was not perceived as being a very good president. Apparently, so the story goes, he trusted people too much, many of them con men and ne’r-do-wells, and his presidency was somewhat of a flop. But this tendency of his to trust others just verified for me his big heart, and pointed out again how much he needed the love and support of his wife.

Poor General Grant! He always moved me

Life went on for me, I fell madly in love (of course!) got married and had two children in two years. I really didn’t have much time to think about General Grant. Then, one day, I saw an ad in the T.V. Guide for the Ken Burns documentary about the Civil War. I had missed it years ago, and told my husband I wanted to make a special effort to watch it this time.

When they started talking about General Grant, I waited breathlessly for them to mention his wife. Sure enough, they said “He adored her,” in a knowing voice. They never said such things about anyone else in that brutal war, but General Grant’s special love for his wife was always brought up.

My interest in General Grant was reignited, and I decided to get a book about him. I bought “The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant,” and from the first page, I had this eerie feeling that General Grant was speaking directly to me. Even in his writing, there is a feeling of loneliness...a loneliness that could only be filled by the love of his wife.

I read about the battles, the generals, the great moments in American History. But even more striking than the battles, what began to unfold for me were the details of a romance that was achingly beautiful.

Without his wife, Grant became “emotionally crippled” and began to drink. It was necessary to keep her there with him in the Army Camps and near the battlefields. Of all the Union generals, he alone was capable of defeating Robert E. Lee and winning the war. Mrs. Grant’s presence was absolutely necessary for the Union to defeat the South.

But wait! General Grant’s wife was from the South! Her family lived on a plantation and owned slaves! Her upbringing represented everything General Grant was duty-bound to destroy. Yet, if she was not with him during the war, he began to drink.

At some point, Julia Grant had to make a choice...her world, or her husband.

In my research of their romance, I searched for a moment of truth for her, in which she recognized that the life she led was wrong, that her husband’s cause was just -- but I never found it. She was still living on her family’s plantation, being waited on by slaves, while her husband was Commander in Chief of the Union Army!

In later years, she spoke wistfully about the “comforts of slavery” before the war, as if she were sorry it all had to end. And I wondered if she even understood what her husband was fighting for.

But she stuck by him. And for her to do this, a woman raised in the lap of luxury of the Southern way of life, educated at a Southern Finishing School, with three slaves of her own from the day of her birth, to give this all up, little by little, and finally, by sticking by her husband, to play such a dramatic role in destroying the life she loved...for no other reason except that she loved him more.

For Julia Grant, this was “Unconditional Surrender,” ironically, her husband’s nickname for the unconditional surrenders he demanded of the South. But the Unconditional Surrender he demanded from his wife was even more poignant. For his wife, “Unconditional Surrender” meant surrender to a love so passionate it overwhelmed everything else in her pampered life. Surrender of the approval of her family, her friends, her neighbors, her way of life, all for a man who was notoriously flawed -- but who loved her with the same passionate devotion.

How did she arrive at the point of Unconditional Surrender? When did she decide that this man was more important to her than anything else? Why was their love affair so alive with passion and romance that it stands out from all other relationships in American history? What was their secret? And what could I, as a married woman and mother, learn from them about the art of romance? A romance that burned hotter and hotter even after four children and struggles that make our modern problems seem insignificant.

I admit to you, I am not a scholar. I am not a professor. I am a housewife who loves romance. And, girlfriend, I found it like you wouldn’t believe, when I went in search of the romance of Julia and Ulysses S. Grant.

Our friend and fellow Grant Geek, Nancy, provided the following true record of U.S. Grant as the first outside contribution to GrantGeek.com

Ulysses S. Grant, 1822-1885

General U. S. Grant, 1865

President Grant 1869

Julia Grant 1864

Reconstruction Violence

Grant was president (Republican, 1869-77) during a difficult time in United States history. He had been a victorious general in the Civil War (1861-65), but the war did not solve the problems between the federal government and the southern states that had fought against it. The violence during the political reconstruction afterwards seemed like a continuation of the war. The southern states that had left the Union in 1860-61 could not send their representatives back to Congress until they ratified new state constitutions. They were required to accept the emancipation of their slaves with their new citizenship. White southerners accepted these conditions reluctantly, and continued to subjugate black people in various ways.

Grant was Popular and Independent

Though personally popular, Grant made political enemies because he followed an independent course. For instance, he chose his Cabinet without advice from anyone, which stirred up resentment. With most of the nation turning its back on the newly freed slaves, he strove to give meaning to their emancipation by protecting them from violence and enforcing the Fifteenth Amendment protecting their right to vote. He also worked to safeguard the nation's financial credit after a very expensive war. This required taking steps toward bringing greenbacks to par with specie (gold), and paying the national debt. Grant's policies made good progress in these areas, cut taxes, and stabilized the economy.

Re-Evaluation of his Presidency

Grant's presidency drew a lot of criticism from his political enemies, and early historians repeated the same. In recent years, several scholars have reviewed the documentary record and discovered that Grant's reputation had been deliberately smeared by his contemporaries to discredit him with the public. He was much too admired to suit his enemies! His popularity is obvious in the result of his re-election in 1872: it was the biggest landslide between 1828 and 1904. Ironically, he kept his popularity with his peers but lost it to later generations, until modern historians reassessed him and his era.

Grant's Personal Character

Ulys Grant was a mild-mannered, soft-spoken man who had a dry wit. He was modest, did not swear, and would not listen to off-color stories. His wife Julia had a sunny disposition. She and their four children made home life happy for Ulys. He liked to wrestle with his boys on the floor, play horsey with them (he was the horse), and pamper his daughter. His one vice was cigars, which killed him. He died in terrible pain from throat cancer, surrounded by his family. His former battlefield enemies served as pallbearers in gratitude for his magnanimous treatment at their surrender ending the war

Learn more about Ulysses S. Grant at:

Ulysses S. Grant Information Center < faculty.css.edu/mkelsey/usgrant >

Ulysses S. Grant Association < www.lib.siu.edu/projects/usgrant >

Grant Monument Association < grantstomb.org/ind-gma.html >

Ulysses S. Grant Was Our First Civil Rights President

March 4, 1869, first inauguration. Grant entreated the country to meet post-war questions without prejudice; he advocated resumption of specie, payment of the debt, economy in government, respect for all nations while demanding equal respect for our own, reform of Indian policy, and ratification of the 15th Amendment.
March 18, 1869 signed the Public Credit Act for the payment of government debt in gold rather than greenbacks.
Sept. 24, 1869, Black Friday. Grant discovered that Fisk and Gould were trying to corner the gold market. He promptly ordered the Secy. of the Treasury to sell gold, thereby deflating the speculators and avoiding a crisis.
March 30, 1870 ratification of the 15th Amendment. Grant said it was "a measure of grander importance than any other one act of the kind from the foundation of our free government to the present day."
May 31, 1870 signed the first Enforcement Act, giving the president power to protect blacks' voting rights.
June 13, 1870 proclaimed neutrality in the Cuban rebellion, resisting pressure to declare war on Spain.
June 22, 1870 signed the bill creating the Dept. of Justice, consolidating government power to enforce civil rights.
March 3, 1871 signed the act establishing the first Civil Service Commission, an important reform.
March 3, 1871 signed the Indian Appropriation Act as part of his Indian Peace Policy, to insure the welfare of the Indians. Their housing, agriculture, and education improved dramatically.
March 24, 1871 issued a proclamation against outlaw bands in South Carolina. This targeted the Ku Klux Klan.
April 20, 1871 signed another Enforcement Act enabling the president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus to enforce the 14th and 15th Amendments, to be used if necessary against armed, disguised men, such as the KKK, who used whipping and murder to break up the Republican Party and prevent blacks from voting.
May 8, 1871, ratification of the Treaty of Washington settling the Alabama Claims with Great Britain over her aid to the South. Britain had built or outfitted several Confederate warships, including the Alabama. Some Americans advocated war against Britain, but Grant patiently brought Britain to a peaceful settlement. This treaty has been called the most important American treaty up to that time since gaining our independence. Grant used international arbitration, setting an important precedent for international efforts to avoid or mitigate warfare. It settled all outstanding disputes with Britain and paid $15,500,000 in damages for losses to U.S. shippers.
Oct. 12, 1871, Grant demanded the KKK in South Carolina to disperse and hand over their rifles to state authorities. They refused, so five days later he suspended habeas corpus in 9 counties and sent in federal troops. Hundreds of Klansmen were prosecuted, many fled, and the KKK was seriously weakened by the end of 1872.
March 1, 1872 signed the act establishing Yellowstone as the first national park, which today has a Grant Village.
May 22, 1872 signed the Amnesty Act restoring civil rights to all southerners except a few Confederate leaders.
Nov. 5, 1872, re-election. The Credit Mobilier scandal was uncovered, involving the bribing of congressmen in 1867-68. Democrats and a clique of Republicans campaigned against federal military intervention in the South. Together they ran N.Y.Tribune editor Horace Greeley against Grant–-and lost.
Feb. 12, 1873 signed the Coinage Act making gold the sole monetary standard.
March 4, 1873, second inauguration. In his address Grant advocated protection of civil rights, restoration of good feeling between sections of the country, resumption of specie, continued reform of Indian policy, the elevation of labor, and improved commerce and industrial development.
Sept. 18, 1873 the Panic of 1873 started when a prominent banking firm, Jay Cooke & Co., failed.
Nov. 28, 1873, won an indemnity and apology from Spain. The Virginius, a ship flying the U.S. flag on the way to Cuba, was captured by a Spanish gunboat. Spain accused the American captain of going to the aid of Cuban rebels in violation of American neutrality, and executed him along with 52 crew and passengers. Grant used arbitration and kept the peace, resisting pressure to declare war on Spain. (Later it was found the flag was illegal.)
April 22, 1874 vetoed the Inflation Bill which would have made resumption of specie impossible in the future.
Dec. 7, 1874. Grant's Sixth Annual Message. In part: "While I remain Executive all the laws of Congress and the provisions of the Constitution...will be enforced with rigor.... Treat the negro as a citizen and a voter, as he is and must remain. Resisting pressure, Grant repeatedly intervened in the South when law and order was threatened.
Jan. 14, 1875 signed the Specie Resumption Act to stabilize the currency by reducing greenbacks to resume specie payments Jan.1, 1879. The economy recovered from the Panic of 1873 when it went into effect in 1879.
March 1, 1875 signed the Civil Rights Act prohibiting racial segregation in public accommodations, transportation, and juries. It would be ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1883. N. Winkler 9/07

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